Mission
Euan Gaul - 1702897 - Mission & Encounter Design Overview For designing the missions and encounters for Marble Falls, there are two key principles to keep in mind; I: Every encounter must, in some way, tie into the main narrative. This can be achieved through the characters present, the location or timeframe in which the player runs into the encounter, dialogue spoken during the sequence. II: Every encounter must, in some way, provide the player with insight or knowledge. This doesn’t have to be strictly tied to the main narrative, and with Marble Falls being a story driven single-phase horror game, there will be more than one ‘red herring’ the player may or may not fall into whilst on their investigation into the mysterious deaths in the small town. If encounters didn’t involve the player gaining some sort of knowledge about the town, its inhabitants, or furthering the investigation they would be at best harmless padding to play-time and at worst a waste of time. The goal behind this second principle is to help give players a sense of immersion and getting to know the world intimately. While there will be several encounters great and small, the following is to lay out four major narrative encounters that the rest of the narrative will be paced around. These encounters are the turning points for the overall story arc and will be a series of crime scenes that the protagonist will investigate until they discover and encounter the antagonist. These crime scenes will follow a general outline; Overview – to inform the outline of how this scene fits into the overall narrative Victim – Who or what the crime is about Location – Where the crime has occurred Time – The time in game but also potentially when in the story arc this crime has occurred. Details – Details in and around the crime scene, important dialogues spoken, etc. Encounter I: Overview: The first encounter acts as the initial hook players are introduced to for the story, long before the inevitable direct conflict with the black-eyed child towards the end of the game. As such, nothing here can be overtly connected to the antagonist but still must give some intrigue. Victim: ''Local wildlife/pets ''Location: ''Public park ''Time: ''Act I, afternoon. ''Details: ''Shortly after arriving and beginning their new work as detective for the small town of Marble Falls, TX, our protagonist Sam Harris is alerted to the first crime scene. Upon arrival he is shown a pet dog local to the neighbourhood has been viciously attacked at the park. The park serves as the towns common area in which kids can play sports, joggers have a track to run on, a small pond for the local wildlife to teem around, etc. Several scratch marks adorn the animals body; however, no clear weapon can be distinguished at the crime scene. While alarming to the residents our hardened player character is more reserved and purely concerned about the facts of the matter. The breed of dog attacked is of a Pitbull variety, and to try and ease the clear panic in the residents’ the detective summarizes that there may not be anything criminal occurring here and that the dog had gotten into a fight with another animal. But there are details surrounding this scene that lead Harris to suspicion, first and foremost the several branches that have been broken well above the height any dog could jump to and are found on the ground of the crime scene with bloodstains. Encounter II: ''Overview: The goal of this second encounter set a little later during the first act or beginning of the second act of the game is to raise the stakes significantly, and let the player know something isn’t quite right. Victim: ''Anthony Jensen, 10, Marble Falls Elementary student. ''Location: ''School playground ''Time: ''Act II, late evening. ''Details: ''Harris’ compounding suspicions are confirmed in this encounter from the first act as the elusive killer moves from small game to their first known human victim, a young school boy. This is the first homicide case in the story and will raise the tension and the stakes immediately for the fate of Harris’ reputation and career in Marble Falls. The murder of the young boy shakes the small community to its core and tears it into smaller groups as they begin to distrust one another. The day of the encounter is one of heavy rainfall, and gloomy grey atmosphere. The dead body located by the swing set in the school playground is that of Anthony Jensen. A young boy with a somewhat ill reputation of being a bully to younger kids. Once again as in the original first few minor encounters in the previous act of the game there is no immediately apparent method of death. The corpse itself however shows signs of blunt force trauma. Rumours will soon spread after this event that the Anthony’s own father may have been involved, a known alcoholic who had recently returned from his service in Vietnam. While convenient Harris knows this to be an ‘easy’ way out of the case and that something more otherworldly may be on his hands by this point in the story. Through small hints in town and his dream sequences he is vaguely aware that whatever or whomever he is dealing with may had telekinetic abilities. Using this suspicion, he finds the likely murder weapon, the swing set itself. One of the seats of the swing set has been wrapped around the top bar several times, at a height no child could possible reach with their strength. A second clue is one of the metal bars lining the barriers around the playground has been torn from its fixings and is missing. Lastly, a mysterious stuffed toy that does not belong to Anthony can also be found at this encounter, further hinting to the fact that the antagonist is a black-eyed child. Harris’ reluctance to go after the father will turn some of the townspeople against him, and the pressure to solve the case will begin to affect the player character, dream sequences will occur more frequently after this encounter. Encounter III: ''Overview: The third encounter will be in direct response to the players previous actions into investigating the previous murders. By now, the player will have a strong suspicion on a potential number of suspects in the town, and in response to this the antagonist will kill off a secondary character the player has become attached to. Victim: ''Detective Jack Korso, Marble Falls Police Department. ''Location: ''Detective J. Korso’s home. ''Time: ''Act III, midnight. ''Details: ''A blood curdling scream is heard as detective Harris slams down the phone, woken up in the dead of night by the ringing phone only to hear the pleas of his deputy, Jack Korso. The indistinguishable cacophony of his co-worker and friend struggling to fight for his life sends our protagonist rushing to his car, driving recklessly through the empty sleepy streets of Marble Falls to the edge of town where Detective Korso lives. Despite Harris’ anti-social nature through previous events in the game a clear friendship and bond is formed with Detective Korso by the time this encounter begins. Unfortunately, upon his arrival it is clear Harris is too late to save his friend. The body of the detective has been shredded into pieces across his house along with overturned and tossed furniture, a light mist from the outside foggy night permeates through broken windows as the player investigates. A subtle detail that may be missed will be the sound of the backdoor closing shortly after Harris closes the front door, which could be mistaken as an echo but is the black-eyed child fleeing the scene of the crime. At this stage of the story the player will know who the killer is, and this encounter is designed to make the player want to confront the child by taking away a likable character that the player character has grown accustomed to. Encounter IV: ''Overview: The fourth and final major encounter will be confronting the antagonist directly, as the player will have discovered the source of the paranormal behaviour going on in the town. As such there is no victim. ''Location: ''The child’s lair/basement. ''Time: ''Epilogue/Conclusion, midnight. ''Details: ''This final encounter is the most simplistic of the four as it is the action-packed conclusion. The player will find the black-eyed child’s lair and do battle with the paranormal entity, using his trusty service weapon a shootout will take place as the player must dodge and evade physical objects being thrown toward them by the antagonist. Upon defeating the entity, the town of Marble Falls is rendered safe, but will the townspeople believe Harris or convict him as the murderer?